


Withheld Truths

by DxTURA



Category: Original Work
Genre: Androids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-20
Updated: 2018-12-20
Packaged: 2019-09-23 15:53:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17083277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DxTURA/pseuds/DxTURA
Summary: I was in a Creative Writing class in my Junior year of college. I wrote this as my final project.Originally posted in 2016.





	Withheld Truths

In 2020, the concept of human-like robots was released to the press, and people disregarded it under the belief that it was yet another failed robotics practice that was made by a college student.

By 2030, these same people were crowding around a display of the prototype models that were created under the collaboration project known as “Project: GEMINI.” These twins, Caster and Pollux, appeared like biological twin children with some of the cheesiest smiles the public had ever seen. Their entire race was called Automatons, and were described by the college student as robots who wished to make friends.

2034 marked the public release of pushing out this newly found species into other parts of Europe on top of America, hoping to raise the spirits of the people by giving them the chance to befriend these robots as well as collect data about human interaction for future research. What was once a heart-warming project quickly became a threat to the human race, however, as presidential documents discussing the emergence of Automatons that acted as weapons for the military in 2037. This stirred panic from nation to nation, and it wasn’t long before there were reports of homicide (both human and automaton in nature) were covering the news reports; 2038 rolled around, and the situation only seemed to get worse. 2039 merged all aspects of the law enforcement to create the SWAT: a team with the goal to recover any runaway bioweapons, and 2039, well…

2040 marked the year of Orion’s discovery.

Orion was also an Automaton, easily recognizable by his steel arm and two legs that were typically hidden by stockings and long-sleeved jackets. There wasn’t much he remembered other than forcefully shutting down his systems after escaping a SWAT chase that made him run from street to street. He ended up hiding in a landfill marked with incurable stenches that blended with one another after some time, but being a machine and all it didn’t seem to bother him too much. He believed that hiding in the dump would trick them into believing that he was already a dying machine; it looked to work that way too, what with the distant grumblings fading not too long after burying himself in the garbage.

He wondered how long it would be until he could finally come out of hiding; he wondered if he was going to be captured and taken away within the next few days.

These thoughts were taken away from Orion when he heard the faint whirring of the computer fan, and the hissing of the wires that told him that a new day had come. He sat up in bed, hugging his knees to his body as his eyes went from blue, to green, to an even brighter blue. The start-up process, as usual; the computer always made sure to release him safely, and never stopped its incessant beeping until it found that everything in Orion’s mainframe looked to be in order. The sounds always irritated him, _especially_ when the dreams he experienced were taken away from him in an instant due to the morning rising. A soft yawn slipped from his lips as he stretched his arms and legs.

“Orion, it’s time to wake up now.” Came the voice the Automaton came to know as his caretaker, Nora. She was the biggest player in his survival, finding his body astray on a random pile of garbage after the rain decided that it was a good idea to have him travel from one place to the other. From what he gathered she was a botanist of sorts, and only traveled to that landfill because a) it was in walking distance and b) it was the easiest to gather composting materials from. Orion was sure she was no older than 21 from his facial recognition features, but that didn’t stop him from finding a feeling of homeliness in her actions.

“Good morning.” He whispered, clearing his throat after rubbing the back of the head, “Is the computer done those vexing noises now?”

Nora laughed, sitting at the edge of her bed after taking her tablet off the desk. “It seems that way. Remember anything?”

“Apart from my memory bank still corrupted, everything seems to be in order.” Wasn’t that the truth. Everything in his head seemed so… _recent_.

Nora scoffed, tapping a few parts of her screen here and there, “It’s been months since I repaired it, though. Everything’s in order now and nothing’s _still_ coming up?”

“Nothing except my hardware model, my name, and the software that I use.” It was a partial lie; Orion knew more than that. He remembered that chase and had a few distant memories of him being on the streets every other night, but the only reason he fibbed was because none of it seemed to make any sense.

“And you’ve had that since I first found you in the landfill…”

He took notice of Nora wincing, but said nothing about it. She always did this when she was afraid of offending him, but how could you offend someone that chose where they were going to sleep? Humans were so fickle; they were ready to flinch and apologize if even the most minor of inconveniences were mentioned.

“You’re thinking too hard again,” He reached over to grab her hand with his metal one and squeezed it, “Don’t worry, we’ll find out who I am and I promise I won’t change when we do!”

She said nothing in response, merely closing out of a few tabs and handing the tablet to him so she could utilize the laptop instead. She always made sure to clear the search history and the cache before lending him the technology, but she also always seemed to forget that he could easily reclaim the system’s information if he wished (and that’s usually what he did).

The information was never fruitful though, other than news articles that spoke of a raging bioweapon destroying everything in its path whenever it was noticed outdoors.

Orion always hoped that he would never come across the machine, especially when some of its features resembled his own.

As he was reading through the third or fourth article he found, Nora audibly gagged.

“‘Another Twelve Killed in Search of Taboo AI—these titles are so _stupid_! It’s like the writers are turning this witch hunt for this one thing into some type of game. No taste or respect for the dying at all!” Rapid-fire clicking could be heard as she closed that tab, too.

Orion caught the website the article was on before typing it into the tablet’s search bar “Is it about that machine that’s kind of like me? The one that you said the government’s hunting because it spontaneously combusted everything upon feeling enmity?”

“Yeah. They just raided another few houses in our neighborhood last night, and the video footage is revolting.” That’s how Nora described every video, yet she refused to show it to him. He wasn’t sure if it was because she was hiding something from him, or because the first time they ever watched one together it brought her to tears. “The SWAT are so worked up about this machine being the end of humanity, yet they don’t realize the repercussions of hurting people like this.”

Orion watched the video on replay, but it simply didn’t pique his interest like the article itself did. It was like any report about the “Taboo AI,” as reporters called it: There was some sort of incident that happened the night before, the actual perpetrator escaped the crime scene, and then the SWAT would still have the gall to blow up the house and claim that it was due to suspicious activity.

The SWAT would also throw around the overused excuse of the government refusing to share any information regarding the project, other than the fact that it was supposed to be a new aged military weapon created with the idea of intimidating their enemy. He was beginning to understand why Nora closed out of it almost immediately after the video played. Most of it sounded like a tabloid magazine!

Something in the video caught his eye, but not before there was a knock on the door. The raps were too stern to be a neighbor, and too loud to be a door-to-door salesman; Nora scowled.

“Orion, stay in your room. Your wig, dress set, and shoes are sticking out of your closet, so put them on the moment I close the door.” She walked out and did so, but that didn’t mean Orion was going to do as he was told.

No, Orion wanted to watch the video again – this time with sound.

He made sure to take extra precautions, pulling out the set of headphones he hid in his shirt every night and wiring them from the tablet to his ears. He fiddled with the sound buttons, tapping the right one three times before following it with one left press. None of the other articles had video – only pictures; maybe today would be the day he would finally figure out more.

Two male reporters had finally convinced the SWAT team to tell them the entirety of the story behind their prey, and boy, did the woman they interviewed seem confident. Orion paid careful attention to the details. There were two types of Automatons, she said. The one they were looking for was supposed to be used as a type of atomic bomb when provoked to high degrees, he explained. There were only two made in the entire world just in case they were to go to nuclear war with any of America’s rivaling countries, but the leakage of the information caused the others to stop trusting them. The SWAT member even said her crew was starting to distrust any Automaton that came into their path, and advised that others would protect those they know.

Orion wondered if that member uttered too much into media’s ear. He never understood the concept of keeping the truth from the people, but didn’t question it too much. He continued to watch, the two males finally switching to the footage they recovered.

As expected there was shouting from each side of the camera, a male shouting “Take cover!” while a woman was screaming for her child. A plethora of explosions burst through the corners as if Orion were watching a movie, and after each explosion stood the young, renowned cyborg with a tattered spearhead in hand. He would look left, then right, his skin a vibrant red as steam erupted from what looked to be his arms and legs.

Was he searching for something? How did they make him so angry? These questions flooded his head, and combined with the Automaton’s model eerily like his own there were a few theories that ingrained themselves into his mind too.

It was then that a sudden outcry pierced his head, and those baby blue eyes glued themselves to the screen as he heard the next sentence: “OR-02, stand down!”

“OR-02” was the name imprinted on his “human” shoulder. His hardware model. He remembered Nora commenting on the idea that he was staring at the brand for at least three hours trying to decipher anything interesting from it. Nora only told him that nearly all Automatons had this tattooed on their neck or leg, which led Orion to wonder whether or not that played a part in who he truly was. And then it hit him.

When OR-02 turned to face the camera – spearhead nocked back, ready to toss – Orion nearly launched the tablet at the wall before him. His body started to quake, small hands tugging at his locks of hair; that gaze in the eyes was without a doubt his own. The boy’s arms, his legs – he couldn’t deny it anymore. He started to think about the memories of him strolling on the streets, yet the moment he stopped near a seemingly random house his entire mind simply shut out everything.

That wasn’t all that flooded his head. There was more.

He could see himself walking in a silent, steel-plated room while many men and women in coats looked at him. He recalled someone placing a dog in front of him, and in raising his mechanical arm a weapon formed to come crashing down upon it. He could hear words that he never thought about before: “Radiation.” “Inefficient.” A world-ending machine that looked nothing more than like a human. Everything was starting to make sense to him now. Why every person that he and Nora visited would disappear the next day due to the enforcement’s antics. Why he felt human, but he did not. Why this small town they lived in was slowly turning into a war zone, and he was furious from it all.

Rage boiling over like a pot of water, Orion could feel the small blue gem that was hidden beneath his locks of hair start to glow. It was another deciding factor that the person they were looking for was none other than him, and he could feel himself growing hot to the core. The robot part of him was telling him that his body temperatures were rising too far for it to not be considered safe anymore; the human part of him was telling him that he needed to calm down and talk to Nora.

At the same time the other part of him wanted to _interrogate_ Nora, because she had to have known. She _should_ have known after seeing that video!

He heard a gunshot, followed by three more. Inaudible sobs came from someone he knew had to be Nora and he slammed the door to his room against its adjacent wall. He paid no mind to the smoke coming from his limbs, nor did he pay attention to his body repeating his frequently increasing body temperature. All he wanted to know about was if Nora was safe or not.

He locked eyes with her, then looked at the figures behind her; she was tied down by what looked to be some members of the SWAT team – arms behind her back as she was on her knees. He was about to run to her, but it wasn’t long before he was held at gunpoint.

“OR-02?” The same female from the news stepped forward, voice low as she shifted forward. “You have nowhere to run this time.”

“Orion!” Nora’s cracked voice caused him to jerk in her direction. “Get out of here, you need to go!”

He tried to tune her cries out, but the higher they went the angrier he became. There was nothing that could be done to soothe him, because each party that stood before him only agitated his thoughts. One group was trying to kill him, while the other hid stashed so many secrets away; it was too much. This entire scenario was too much.

It was then that something in his system kicked in, and those clear eyes of his became the vivid red that was flashed in the recording. He brushed his bangs backward and revealed a flickering button, and it wasn’t long before a blood-curdling roar ripped through his throat after pressing it. He used the only thing he knew at this point: his self-destruct sequence.

It was a ten second countdown, there was nothing that distinguished the amount of time left other than the coming quicker in speed. From there the SWAT released Nora, and raced towards the door in hopes that they wouldn’t be caught in the explosion; they didn’t want to live the same fate as their comrades, and could care less about anyone else in the house.

He was sure Nora wanted to soothe him, but it was too late. The moment a shrill chime came from the child’s body, the house was coated in hungry flames. Windows shattered, furniture charred, and the bodies of the people he both loved and hated were immersed into ash as his body expulsed the energy it held for so long.

Still, Orion stood. The metallic structure of his body allowed him to retain his appearance while plummeting himself in high temperatures, but the damage was already done.

Orion knew who he was now, and just what kind of Automaton life had made him out to be.


End file.
